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Muse Costume Ball: Daedelus + Archimedes

I have the strange distinction of having Halloween as my birthday, a day that casts off long shadows and candy wrappers. And usually sensible people seem to let loose just that little bit extra, and it's always interesting to watch it happen in degrees or full immersion. The wild ones who've waited all year for this time, they commit to their characters as ever.

So back when LACMA approached me about taking time this Wednesday to DJ the 2012 Muse Costume Ball and to celebrate Mr. Kubrick's life and Halloween, I really couldn't resist. I began to try to think on a grand scale and hope I could live up to the bar these previous Muse events have set.

I enlisted help from the UK and summoned a device I've been using rarely (as it is a bit more of a spectacle then a typical venue can rightly hold). We've taken to calling it Archimedes, in honor of the ancient Greek mathematician and inventor, because it uses mirrors (less to set things on fire, but kind of—sort of—a similar idea).

Archimedes (the light show) was first developed to take the stage at the 2011 Coachella festival. When so many other stage shows have already been touted and triumphed as huge acts, I had the opportunity to try to do something different, but without huge major label backing. Such a difficult mandate, but luckily those previously mentioned UK friends are very clever and we worked out an idea to use mechanized mirrors on a frame of steel that move in response to user control.

Now we've kept developing, refining, and indeed practicing with it, but with the exception of a few choice festivals since (Barcelona's Sonar 2012, Camp Bisco, and scant others) it hasn't been used much. This will be a Los Angeles debut. I couldn't be more excited than on a birthday, this Halloween, and with you. For this event Archimedes will be one part monolith (from 2001: A Space Odyssey) to honor Mr. Kubrick, another part light show, but then mostly a reflection of the audience's outfit and LACMA's awesome architecture.

Happy 86th birthday to Frank Gehry! What would the world be without the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, or so many other groundbreaking buildings? We look forward to celebrating Gehry’s impact with a retrospective opening September 13: http://bit.ly/LACMAgehry